Carter Ryan Martin has arrived!!

What we thought would be our last doctor appointment on the 1st turned out to be quite a bit more.  We'd thought that maybe Pam's water had broken but our doctor wasn't quite convinced.  She sent us to the hospital for monitoring to verify.  Well, within a couple minutes at the hospital it was confirmed broken and we were told that Pam wouldn't be leaving pregnant.  About 10 hours later Carter entered this world.  At 4:31AM our 7lb 12oz 20.5" little man made his grand entrance.  Pam did great!  She wanted to go all natural, but with her water being broken there was an urgency to get him out so she was induced which inevitably led to a epidural (before she made the call to have the epidural, after 3 hours of heavy contractions, she kept saying how she felt like she was dying).  Oh well.  There was about 45 minutes of pushing and Carter probably would have been here around 4:10 or so if we didn't have to wait for the doctor to show up...20 minutes of no pushing allowed.  Pam said the no pushing was much worse than the pushing.  

  
                                   

Once settled into our room with him there was a sense of relief for everyone.  Pam was glad it was all over, Carter was happy to be out, and I was shocked I was finally a dad and glad to be out of the delivery room.  He was really quite and easy going for the first 24 hours, I guess they all sort of are.  But at the 24 hour mark, 4AM the next morning when we were finally trying to get some sleep, he started to test out this vocal cords and boy is he loud.

It's only been a little more than 2 days, but I think we're sort of starting to understand what we got ourselves into.  I'm sure there's a ton more we'll learn/figure out, but we're getting the basics.  I can't believe I'm sitting at home on the couch and there's a little tiny baby sitting in a bouncy chair and occasionally making little noises just a few feet away, and he's mine.  Crazy, but awesome.  

                                 

Obviously there are a ton of little side stories about me having to change his first diaper, the first diaper I've every changed and WOW was it a messy one, family visits, his little boy procedure (traumatic for any man to watch), breast feeding, lack of sleep, the car ride home and everything else, but really the only thing that needs to be said is we couldn't be happier and look forward to the great joy he will bring to our lives.  World, meet Carter, Carter, welcome.

(Side note: I just read this to Pam and she started crying...ahhhh)